3:00 snapshot #1175 Plus bonus indoor wildlife (new species!)
I think I've featured this stony cervid family in a previous snapshot. Sorry to get all techy, but this (along with the zookeeper/Mandrill and croc pics) was taken with the tiny powershot A540--the modern equivalent of a 110 camera (see icon). It looks so much better to me than the iPod snaps, it look like this is going to be the camera I carry around with, at least until bug season rolls around. How good a bug close-up could I manage with this little thing?
[Spoiler (click to open)]
About this good, I reckon. There is a macro setting but it's hard to know if you've got it right until you check it later. It's better than I expected.
Anyway, this is an early instar nymph of the smokybrown cockroach Periplaneta fuliginosa. I've probably been seeing and dismissing adults and later instar nymphs for years, since they look a lot like American cockroaches. The smokybrown adults are uniformly dark mahogany brown, while the Americans have lighter brown markings on their pronota. The early instar nymphs are distinctive, however. There are two light colored bands on the insect's body, and the last few segments of the antennae are likewise light colored.
Smokybrown cockroaches are not common indoor pests, they require temperature and humidity levels that are much higher than most households. They are found in and around houses in Florida and Texas, as well as in tropical greenhouses and similar buildings.